West
[[The Four Directions|Back to the Four Directions '''main page]] [[North|Forward to '''NORTH]] 'Traditional Associations with the WEST' Setting sun Elder Closing Fall Black/Blue Water Sweat Clouds Death Dreams Emotions Wisdom Bear Jaguar Sage 'GMMC Associations with the WEST' Whale totem Hidden self Owl(experience/counsel) The Southwest is COMING INTO POWER Adulthood [[North|Forward to NORTH]] . 'Thoughts on the West' GMMC Members: please add your own personal thoughts. Also, be sure to add more ideas to the lists above. Calling the Spirits of the West I call on the West and the element of water to be with me now. The ever descending, irresistible water, that shapes and feeds the earth. I bless and am grateful for the water that flows within me and outside of me. For the fluidity of my emotions that allow me to dream and to learn the lessons of the darkness. I bless the blood in my body that sustains my health. I bless the gift of my tears, that helps me to know the truth in all things. I am one with the clouds that float above the Earth and that give their water back to Mother Earth to sustain my plant brothers and sisters. I am one with and I bless the West and the water. 'Lost in the West' 7/9/11 from Albert Marsh You can get lost. You can inadvertently lose your way, make a wrong turn or miss a signpost and realize that you have no idea where you are. You can either panic or else simply know that somehow you'll eventually get your bearings. If you're in a forest or a desert. this can be difficult and calls on your survival skills and your courage. If you're in civilization, your chances are better of finding someone to help you if you ask for help. You can also make bad, uninformed life choices and get lost. This can have serious consequences that will affect your future life, such as if you quit your job, eat too much, or say something that you regret. Shamans look at life in terms of the four directions, East, South, West and North, each direction being a stage of growth, Child, Adolescent, Adult and Elder. How do you find yourself? This has to do with growing out of adolescence and becoming an adult, with finding your self-authority. The process of actually becoming an adult, becoming independent and self-sufficient, getting an education and a profession, making a contribution to society in some way, finding a mate and raising children, can be daunting to an adolescent. There are many ways to get lost among all these choices, many wrong turns you can take. It's a life-long learning process, and our mistakes, our seeming bad choices, frequently are the way we learn and grow in finding out who we truly are. The mature adult has successfully found his way through this challenging maze and arrived at a place of happiness, satisfaction, health and productivity. The most important tool on this journey is the will. A strong will is needed to make these crucial choices and is the difference between an adolescent and an adult. Building a will involves the making of choices. Most often the right choice is the most difficult one, the most daunting one. It's easy to choose the easy way out. Deciding to go to school as an adolescent and then go on to college takes courage and the ability to face the future with foresight. Choosing a profession also takes a vision and making a decision about the direction you want your life to take. Will it be business, science, politics, the military, the arts? Frequently our families want us to follow a family tradition and it takes a strong will to make your own choice counter to theirs. In making this choice, many discover themselves and their own strength. Those who surrender their will to someone else are the lost ones,who never find the self-fulfillment and the satisfaction of adulthood. Successful adults are those who make meaningful contributions to their society. This doesn't have to be some big, groundbreaking discovery. There is satisfaction to be found in having a comfortable home, a lasting, loving relationship, good health, being in service to the community, having financial security, etc. This is every parent's dream for their sons and daughters. Life can be an adventure, a voyage of discovery. Without a strong will it often is a different story. The ability to choose a direction and then fearlessly follow it to completion is the task of the adult and of the shaman's West. 'Making Good Choices in the West' 7/10/11 Albert Marsh The choices we make at crucial times in our livers determine our future. We do our best to choose wisely, but what basis do we have for choosing the most beneficial one? Our only basis is all the previous choices we've made in our lives up to that moment. Hopefully we've learned from the results of our choices which ones were helpful and which ones were disasters, and so we can avoid making the same mistake. There is a saying, "Insanity is repeatedly doing something that you know was harmful in the past." This can also be a definition of dysfunction. There is probably something in your past, some event too painful to even remember, and as a result it is buried in your subconscious mind and forgotten. This mental "blank" can cause you to repeat the unwise choice when the when faced with a similar situation, in fact, you'll probably make the same choice again when faced with it because you don’t remember the previous outcome and its consequences. You didn't learn the lesson. . I've heard these blanks called "pockets of psychosis" because it's not a choice you would make if you'd learned the lesson. Some examples are compulsive behaviors, anger and its aftermath, addictions, overeating, dysfunctional relationships, etc. As I've written earlier concerning adulthood, it's our will, our power of making wise choices, that sets the direction of your life. . This ability to choose wisely is based on your upbringing. All wise choices are based on the Virtues, such as honesty, integrity, sympathy, love, hope, charity, happiness, generosity. These virtues are handed down from generation to generation in all cultures. A father who is himself damaged and unable to express his affection for his children was most likely was raised by an unloving, abusive father. As the Bible says, this flaw is passed on "unto the seventh generation." It is an never ending chain of darkness, and could be thought of as a mild form of insanity. The children who were lucky enough to have had an unconditionally loving mother may be able to free themselves from this painful heritage. Only such a mother who is damaged herself would tolerate such behavior in her spouse. These virtues are most often present in families in which true unconditional love can heal this baleful influence. There are fortunate families with a history of good works and of lasting contributions to society. They are frequently families of wealth, but not necessarily so. The culture of poverty. of continual limitation and lack, puts a strain on fathers. Frustrated by their inability to rise above their circumstances, they lose all hope of ever changing, based on the example of their own father's inability to do so. And yet happiness is not grounded in wealth, but on one's beliefs. Frequently an enlightened minister can by his example give hope to his congregation, which in turn helps them to bond together in mutual support and creates a supportive culture that can help change their old, ingrained negative beliefs. . The ultimate goal of life is freedom, freedom from fear and oppression, the freedom to live happy and productive lives and raise children who can in turn live in freedom. I was fortunate to have had such a loving mother, and although my life has had many dark moments, her unconditionally loving influence lives on in me and has blessed me with happiness and freedom. . . .